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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Roaring tiger, rising dragon

The stage for another tsunami of change to clean up the nation.

The attack by thugs and hooligans on the students camping peacefully
at Dataran Merdeka is the last straw. Not only were the students beaten
up, their mobile phones, cameras and cash donations from well-wishers
were also taken away.

Civil society is now getting fed up with the government which seems
to be a law unto itself and acting with arrogance and impunity in
oppressing the rakyat. The students have their rights and the Barisan
Nasional government should engage in a peaceful discussion with them in
order to come up with an amicable win-win solution.

Instead, the BN government is thumbing its nose at the students. This
is unacceptable and this attack on the students just goes to show that
even law and order has been breached. What is Malaysia coming to?
This columnist who was at Dataran Merdeka to give moral support to
the students found that their rationale for protesting about their
student loans is reasonable as the repayment interest can go higher than
20% due to late repayment.

One student told this columnist that he is unhappy with the interest
rate as the debt of one BN crony amounting to RM589 million was written
off just like that.

Passers-by – the young and elderly – also stopped by to give the
students moral support and told this columnist that they will be coming
to Dataran Merdeka for Bersih 3.0 rally. Bersih 3.0 is going to be a big
event. “We will be near Dataran if there are roadblocks,” said an
elderly man.

Serious action must be taken against the thugs who attacked the
students and those who disrupted Pakatan Rakyat’s ceramahs. So far,
there has been no action against the thugs who beat people up at an ABU
(Anyone But Umno) function in Klang in January this year or the thugs
who attacked reporters at the Anti-Lynas Rally in Penang on Feb 26.
Twelve car windscreens were also smashed during a DAP fund-raising
dinner in Sarawak recently.

Elegant silence

There has been an increase in lawlessness since the beginning of this
year and so far Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has kept an “elegant
silence”. This is unacceptable as it seems we are going back to the
medieval age where we need to carry a sword and shield for protection.

Najib must not be blind to these incidents of violence. He must come
out strongly to issue statements condemning these violent thugs. In a
press conference on April 4 during the announcement of the date of the
Bersih 3.0 sit-in, co-chairperson S Ambiga has expressed the hope that
Najib and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim can come up with a joint
statement condemning the recent escalating violence during political
ceramahs. This (spirally violence) is a dangerous prelude to the
forthcoming 13th general election.

It is every Malaysian’s ardent wish that the election campaign will
be peaceful and orderly and that a high level of decorum,
professionalism and sound ethics be employed. We hope that concrete
steps will be taken to stop this culture of violence.

Be that as it may, these incidents are not doing the BN government
any favour. The groundswell is building up. If you attend a Pakatan
ceramah, you can see people from all walks of life there. To give you an
example of the diversity, you will see an elderly Chinese man in short
trousers and singlet standing next to a young Malay boy or a Sikh guy.

Prior to 2004, the response to the opposition ceramahs was poor and
there might be 100 to 200 Malay men in skull-caps. But not so these
days. Today, Pakatan ceramahs always draw more than a 1,000 people. The
only way BN can win now is via the dirty voter rolls.

Even in the Umno stronghold of Johor, some of the die-hard Umno
supporters are waking up. There will be a group called Gabungan
Selamatkan Tanah Rakyat Johor (Tanah) which will be joining the Bersih
3.0 sit-in. These people are from Tanah Sungai Balang Muar, Felda Cahaya
Baru, Setinggan Kampung Plentong Tengah and many more.

Armageddon 2012

According to Johor PAS Youth’s Suhaizan Kaiat, this is the first time
that this is happening. In Kelantan, 400 Umno members from Gual Ipoh
and Bukit Panau have left and joined PAS. Recently this month alone, 69
Umno members from Kampung Dangar and Kampung Kedap have joined PAS and
on April 7, 152 Umno members from Bukit Tuku, also in Kelantan, have
joined PAS. In the parliamentary seat of Kota Raja, Selangor, whose MP
is Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud from PAS, 450 members have left PPP to join
PAS.

Amidst all this flurry of activities, the issue of fair and balanced
media coverage and 21-day campaign period – which are also among
Bersih’s eight demands – seem to have been left on the back-burner as
the focus is on the dirty voter rolls. Nevertheless, this columnist
dares to say that these two demands will clearly be ignored by the BN
government.

Najib is also busy touring the country and showing that he is
campaigning hard to win the people’s support so that when BN wins, he
can say that he deserved it because he campaigned very hard. This is the
illusory reason BN will give to dupe the rakyat when it wins the 13th
general election.

BN is building up a great momentum and is like a tiger now. It is
showing its might and has let out a mighty roar. The people meanwhile
are waking up. The rakyat will be like the dragon rising up from the
ocean bringing a tsunami of change to clean up the nation. The tiger
will roar. The dragon will rise. The stage is set for Armageddon 2012.

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Welcome To My BlogYou are free to speak your mind by writing your comments but seditious and racial remarks will be deleted. I welcome suggestions and opinions on my blog so that it can be improved further for the benefit of all.Richard LKLoh article26@lycos.com